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Thursday, 22 May 2014

You only get one chance to make a good first impression and generally speaking
the first track of an album is the key indicator for a listener on whether or
not they’ll enjoy the style of music put forward. This doesn’t always mean
putting your strongest track first, but it certainly means putting a track that
summarises your musical style and gives the audience a clear indication of what
you are about.

Ragged Staff are another I got from a Fatea Showcase, ‘Magnetism’. Their
introductory track from ‘Kiss the Shore’ is ‘The Blacksmith’ and this is also
the track featured on Magnetism. Now this track does exactly the job these
first tracks are supposed to do.

Ragged Staff are self described as Traditional and Contemporary Folk and ‘The
Blacksmith hits us straight away with a mystical Traditional sound to immediately
grasp hold of you and tie you down so that you listen. Next in this song a
lovely set if vocals take over and sing a wonderful ballad about... well I’m
sure you can guess. A lovely surprise in this track is about three quarters in
when another powerful voice jumps in and takes you completely off guard.

There are of course a lot of bands that do traditional music
and many may wonder if you can have too much of a good thing but I believe
Ragged Staff have added another version of ‘Raggle Taggle Gypsies’ that just proves
this isn’t the case. As well as the exciting music and great variety in sounds
that just blast you in this second track the vocals of Caroline Riches and Ned
Lawton really hit you with such enthusiasm that you could never get bored of
the track.

It is also nice to see that though Ragged Staff’s style is
generally fast paced, like ‘Keys of Canterbury’, foot stomping type folk they
are not a one trick pony and you get nice varieties of pace even within songs
such as ‘Rosebud in June’ and the wonderful ‘Si Bheag Si Mhor’.

Folk music is also of course a tool for storytelling and Ragged Staff have
certainly captivated this element perfectly. If you listen to ‘The Nightingale’
and then ‘The Whaler/ The Wren Hornpipe’ then not only do these two tales flow
into each other, but they are so completely different from the slow paced ‘Nightingale’
to the faster ‘Whaler’. Even the choice of changing from Caroline to Ned is a
great decision as it really shifts the gear at this point in the album.

There are a lot of wonderful tracks on this album, a fine
addition to any collection!

Monday, 19 May 2014

I first discovered this lovely lady on Fatea Showcases. I always enjoy these as
they are great to cast your net out and discover brilliant talent that you may
have otherwise missed.The most recent
editions ‘Chemistry’ and ‘Magnetism’ have introduced me to at least three
artists that I felt I should explore further.

The first of these is Kelly Oliver who has her debut EP ‘Far From Home’ now
available both as downloadable and physical copies. The EP is a standard 5
tracks and the first song I heard was the title song from the EP ‘Far From Home’.

This tune is a very gentle, soft tune with a pleasant guitar strum setting the
scene of a young lady eagerly awaiting the return of a young man of which she
is pretty smitten. Despite her mother’s warnings and the way the chap decided
to spend most of his time away from the central character is still devoted to
his return. And they say long distance relationships are difficult.

I ended up putting this song on repeat for almost an hour as each time the
beauty of Kelly’s voice and the musical foundation really just builds and
builds on you. The occasional harmonica intermission also did a great job of
breaking up the song and keeping the variety going so the listener doesn’t get
bored in any way, and this keep going throughout other tracks as well.

The next tune, ‘Keilan are you Coming?’ has some nice
differences, being much faster paced with a louder strum on the guitar and a
lot more fire in the voice. In a way, it’s quite a similar song, but they
display two totally separate emotions, the first on ‘Far From Home’ is one of
patience and then this one seemed a little more like an excited child struggling
to hold back that excitement. This is a nice variety then from a later track ‘He
Walked on the Side of the Sea’ which is calmer.

Kelly has been influenced a lot by Irish traditional music
and this certainly comes across her music, but luckily that’s all it is, an
influence. Kelly does a fantastic job of keeping her music so wonderfully individual
and simple. I am often impressed by musicians who make their music stand out
with original ideas are bizarre combinations of vocals and instrument, but what
is even more impressive is to find individuals who can be original but give you
an air of familiarity so that their music is comfortable and soothing. Kelly
has certainly gotten this balance spot on.

I loved this EP and I wish I had made it to Folkstock last September (I was
supposed to go but alas last minute couldn’t make it) as I would have seen her
live! Kelly has certainly made the list of live performances I must find.

I wonder if Kelly would make what I like to call a ‘wildcard’ track when she
does a full length album, as she certainly has a secure sound. Wildcards are
songs that are quite different from the rest, usually shorter bizarre tracks
that many artists are now attempting. Although risky for people I believe Kelly
could certainly pull it off, although to be honest she wouldn’t need to.

A lovely singer, to find out more follow these links and be sure to follow
Kelly on Twitter @kellyoliverfolk, and me @paulrawcliffe

About Me

I am a recent graduate of Liverpool Hope University wanting to enter the world of Radio broadcasting. My subject area is philosophy and religion which would make me an ideal candidate for radio documentaries and such.
May I add that this is wrong and my astrological sign is Aquarius not Capricorn...
I'm also the kind of person who loves making friends! So please say hello!